Gutierrez suit dropped
Published on September 10th, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - A Stoneham resident recently abandoned her appeal of a special permit issued for a proposed 790,000 square foot office park at the former site of the Boston Medical Regional Center.
Publically announcing her decision in a letter to the editor published in last week's Stoneham Independent, Miriam Regan-Fiore cited a potential six figure price tag in court costs as the major reason for dropping her legal challenge.
"It was really a strategic choice. We have some good funding from generous donors. But it's not that much money, so we have to pick and choose our battles," the Ravine Road resident explained.
According to Stoneham attorney Charlie Houghton, who represents Burlington-based developing firm The Gutierrez Company, Regan-Fiore's move will eliminate any need to request a zoning change at a future Town Meeting.
"The project now has its special permit. We don't need to come back to the town for a Town Meeting vote now," commented Houghton, whose last attempt to circumvent Regan-Fiore's appeal was overwhelmingly defeated at last May's Town Meeting.
Regan-Fiore, who is co-president of Communities for Fells Preservation, an advocacy group protesting the size of the Stoneham Executive Center, challenged the town Planning Board's decision to issue a special permit for the development last winter.
Claiming that the project would negatively impact her property through increased neighborhood traffic and excessive water runoff, Regan-Fiore's appeal was ruled valid by a Massachusetts Superior Court Judge late last February, allowing her legal challenge to continue to Appeals Court.
With her appeal now dropped, Regan-Fiore and her neighborhood will now utilize several different channels to voice their objections to the proposed office park, starting with the last Massachusetts Environmental Protection Act (MEPA) review.
"We thought it would be more beneficial to spend our money on the environmental impact review. We wanted to make sure we were fully funded to pay for traffic, wetlands, and legal experts for the MEPA review," said Regan-Fiore.
The MEPA review, an environmental report that considers the traffic, pollution, and water runoff impacts of a large-scale project, represents the last hurdle The Gutierrez Company must leap before being authorized to start the estimated $50 million construction of the buildings, says Arthur Gutierrez, Jr., the vice-president of the developing firm.
"The dismissal of the appeal is a positive step for the development. Basically...we'll be filing for [the environmental review test] within the next 60 days...That will be the only thing holding us back from having all our approvals," commented Gutierrez, who added that the company will wait until the real estate market improves before starting the construction phase.
Although Gutierrez expressed confidence that the MEPA review would run smoothly, Regan-Fiore claims the company needs to address nearly 10-pages worth of improvements listed at the last MEPA hearing.
"When the last MEPA report was filed, there were close to 10 pages of environmental impacts they had to address. If they can't show that they adequately mitigated all the environmental impacts, they would have to present a reduced sized project that would have less of an impact," reported Regan-Fiore, saying that traffic and water runoff were two of the major issues included in the report.
While Regan-Fiore couldn't detail the exact changes she would like to see adopted at the site, she and other activists want the building's size, height, and parking lot to be reduced.
"I will defer commenting on that because we need our traffic studies. One of the things you look at is the peak traffic impact when you make a decision about the size. If it was a 20 percent reduction, I would say that's a good start," Regan-Fiore declared.
However, according to Gutierrez and an engineer hired by the company to study the site's drainage, the construction company has surpassed local and state requirements to alleviate excess water runoff.
"We've designed a great drainage situation that goes above and beyond local and state requirements. We've designed the site so when it's built, they'll be less water coming from the site than today," Gutierrez claimed.
Echoing Gutierrez's statement's about the drainage, Allen and Major Associates, Inc,. engineer Frank Corey, who was hired by the Gutierrez Company to review the water runoff, detailed the steps taken to minimize the site's runoff.
"Before, everything ran off towards Ravine Road uncontrollably. Now we've controlled the perimeter of the site. We've curbed all of it," said Corey of the one step that was taken.
"The existing Ravine Road culvert was too small. We observed in the past that the mouth can get backed up with tree limbs and silt. We're proposing to completely replace it with a 36-inch culvert. This flow will be picked up by the MDC relief drain. So we're directing the runoff to the MDC relief drain which flows away from the area," Culvert added, explaining that the Gutierrez Company will assume responsibility of the Ravine Road culvert that snakes across MDC lands.
Although Gutierrez also claimed that traffic concerns were also properly addressed by its consultants, a representative from VHB, the firm hired by the Gutierrez Company to conduct traffic studies, did not return phone calls for comment.
Expressing his satisfaction with Regan-Fiore's dropped appeal, Selectman Cosmo Ciccarello looked forward to moving the project along.
"I feel great about it because I feel we need the revenue. That's $2 million in tax revenue that's badly needed. We tried to address all concerns at nearly 13 separate hearings. Melrose, Medford and Woburn were all contacted about the project," said Ciccarello.
Subscribe and get Home Delivery of The Independent
Save 36% off the newstand price — that's like 18 FREE issues!